Ep 323 Coercive Control: A Child's Unthinkable Journey with David Challen

Crime Analyst

Laura Richards

True Crime

4.9 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Laura and David Challen, son of Sally Challen and author of The Unthinkable, unravel the insidious and lifelong harm coercive control causes a child. David speaks candidly about his lived experience, the realities of growing up with a coercively controlling father, and his horrifying experience at his mothers’s trial where she was convicted of his fathers’s murder. Listen and find out what David discovered when he went through all the trial transcripts. It angered him so much he started to campaign for his mother’s appeal and eventual successful release. David also recently joined Laura for an exclusive live event and the recording is available now in the Squad for those who want to go deeper on this conversation. This conversation was compelling and eloquently gives language and insight into living with his abusive and coercively controlling father. You can listen to David’s first interview on Crime Analyst here: Ep 261: The Unthinkable: A Story of Control, Violence and My Mother with David Challen #SallyChallen #CoerciveControl #DavidChallen #PowerAndControl #DomesticAbuse #CrimeAnalyst #TrueCrime #Podcast #WarningSigns #Manipulation #UnthinkableBook #DomesticViolence Clip https://youtu.be/fnfmFm-T5jA?si=MC-GNmXZVnzEFxyK Sources   Buy David’s Book The Unthinkable: https://www.amazon.com/Unthinkable-Story-Control-Violence-Mother/dp/1914240278 Ep 261: The Unthinkable: A Story of Control, Violence and My Mother with David Challen www.dashriskchecklist.com   https://www.thelaurarichards.com/resources/coercivecontrol   https://www.thelaurarichards.com/resources/books https://www.thelaurarichards.com/my-two-cents/serial-and-high-risk-stalkers-and-domestic-abusers For more insight and knowledge, advocacy and professional development join The Crime Analyst Squad. It’s a growing and dynamic community offering expert insight, in-depth conversations, exclusive episodes and videos, and live events. More Training Info: www.dashriskchecklist.com www.thelaurarichards.com Crime Analyst YouTube, Socials and Website   YouTube @crimeanalyst    Facebook Crime Analyst Podcast   Instagram @crimeanalyst @laurarichards999   Threads @crimeanalyst   X @thecrimeanalyst @laurarichards999    TikTok @crimeanalystpod   Website www.crime-analyst.com    Leave a 5* Review https://www.crime-analyst.com/reviews/new/   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present? Let's get started, shall we? From rags to riches. I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse. Yorkshire to New York. Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.4	A life dedicated to revenge. Let's make this an occasion to remember. A woman of substance on Channel 4, stream now.
0:21.1	Sally Challen is still adapting to her free life.
0:24.5	Not only is she out of prison, but for the first time, she's free to decide how she lives.
0:30.2	Mental abuse is the most difficult thing to explain to people.
0:36.7	I think that over the years mine was like a drip feed coming at me
0:44.4	and it came to a crescendo at the end. It's something that makes you question your own mind.
0:53.3	Richard did rape me, He did drag me down the
0:57.8	stairs and throw me out of his flat once. You don't know how to get out of it because you're
1:03.3	so conditioned to being with that person. You can't see a life without them. Sally met her husband
1:08.9	Richard when she was just 15. They married, had two sons and were together 40 years.
1:14.6	The outside world, a happy family.
1:16.6	But what people didn't see was that Sally was a victim of sustained psychological abuse,
1:21.6	a crime now recognised as coercive control.
1:24.6	And in August 2010, after suspecting Richard of yet another affair, she snapped.
1:30.8	I gave him his food and I said to him, am I going to see you tomorrow?
1:36.6	And he said, don't question me, don't question me.
1:39.4	And I grabbed a hammer that was in my bag and hit him.
1:43.0	They say I hit him 18 times. I can't think that I could
1:47.0	possibly have been capable of doing something. Something just snapped inside me. I admit that
1:54.0	the hammer was in my bag but I got no recollection of putting it in there. I then covered him up and wrote a note saying, I love you, on,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laura Richards, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laura Richards and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.